Annealing oven or leer.



3 SHEETS-SHEET l.

Patented Mar. 28, 1916.

l G. A.l SHIELDS. ANNEALING OVEN 0R LEER.

HIL.

APPLICATION FILED OCT. 26. 1914.

LITL

GEUR'GE A. EHIEL G. A. SHIELDS.

ANNEALING OVEN 0R LEER.

APPLICATION man ocnzs. 1914.

Patented Mam. 28, 1916.

' 3 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

GEORGE A. SI-IILDS, F COLUMBUS, OHIO.

ANNEALING OVEN 0R. LEER.

Specication of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 28, iltlllti.

Application led October 26, 1914:. Serial Ho. 868,674.

To all 'Lo/tom t may concern:

Beit known that I, GEORGE A.. SHIELDS, a citizen of the United States of America, residing at Columbus, in the county of Franklin and State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Annealing Ovens or Leers, of which the following is a specification.

The present invention relates to improvements in annealing ovens or leers, and is especially adapted for use in connection with large plate glass, although of course it is adapted Afor use with any other kind of glassware that is to be slowly passed through the annealing oven for the pering and coolin The primary object of the invention is the provision of means by which the glass plates or pieces may be continuously passed through the oven so that they will be properly annealed during their passage therethrough, and this movement is accomplished by a step by step action imparted to the plates. The invention consists essentially in the combination and arrangement within the .annealing oven of two members, one capable of a longitudinal movement and the other member vertically movable, and both elements adapted to return to theirl normal positions at the end of a working action.

In the accompanying drawings I have illustrated a complete example of the physical embodiment of my invention constructed accordin to the best mode I have so far devised or the application of the principles of my invention.

Figure l shows an annealing furnace or oven in section, with my conveyer device illustrated therein, in connection with a fiattening stone or wheel for cylinder glass, the conveyer being in normal position. Fig. 2 shows a portion of Fig. l with the conveyer in operative position. Fig. 3 shows a vertical sectional view of the annealing furnace or oven with my conveying device in side elevation and normal position., Fig. 4 is a view similar to Fig. 3 with the conveyer in operative position. Fig. 5 is a detail sectional view, showing in side elevation, the supports for the longitudinally and vertically movable members of the conveyer. Fig. 6 is an end view of Fig. 5 showing a purpose of temraised and the vertically movable member of y the conveyer lifted.

In the preferred embodiment of my invention I have illustrated its use in connection with a well known type of furnace or oven as l to which the glassware to be annealed is introduced through the stock hole 2 of the furnace wall. It will be understood that the stock from which the glass plates are to be made is brought to the furnace from the glass making machine in the form of a cylinder for each plate, and the cylinders are laid upon the rotary flattening stone or wheel 3 at approximately the point marked 4, and as the wheel revolves in the direction of the arrow, the cylinder is flattened into a plate ready for annealing. From the point marked 5 in Fig. l, the plates are removed and placed upon the heated end of the annealing conveyer in the oven 6.

In Fig. l it will be understood that the left end of the oven is the heated end and the right end is the cooler end, and that the glass plates are to pass through the oven from left to right, thus undergoing the process of heating and then gradually cooling for the purpose of removing brittleness or increasing ductility, as readily understood by those skilled in the art.

l`here are two co-acting elements to the conveyer, one the longitudinally movable carrier 7 and the other, the vertically movable lifting devlce or elevator v8. The carl rier 7 comprises a plurality of rods 7 arranged in parallelism in a horizontal plane, and joined at one end by the cross rod 9 and couplings l0, so that therods 7 form a unitary structure, and this structure is capable of supporting a multiplicity of glass plates, and in conjunction with the other member 8, moving them step by step to the right in Fig. l. The member 8 of the conveyer also comprises a series of metal rods, as 8', arranged in parallelism and extending from end to end of the oven 6. These rods are shorter than the rods 7', and in Fig. 5 par- Stil ticularly it will be seen that the rods 7 are above the rods 8 when the device is in normal position, but in Fig. 8 it will be apparent that rods of the member 8 may e lifted above the rods of the member 7.

The member 7 of the conveyer, or rather its rods 7 are each supported on a roller or series of rollers as 11. There are five rods 7 illustrated in the drawings, and each rod is supported by four rollers. The number of rods and rollers used may, of course, be increased or diminished as desired. Each of the rollers forms one of a series of live that are supported by means of an angle bar or bracket 12, preferably of angle iron and extended across the oven 6 and sup orted from a lug 13 projecting upwardly rom a base plate 1 4 located in a slot l5 in the side Walls of the oven. Each roller is directly supported from the angleiron by means of a pair of arms 16, 16, undercut or grooved at 17 for the accommodation of the intle or trunnion 18 of the roller. The pint es or trunnions are free to roll from one end of the groove to the other end as will be described. These arms 16 are fixed above the apex ofthe angle iron by means of a plate 19 at the base of the angle iron, and a air of bolts 20, one at each side of the ang e iron. In Fig. 7 it will be seen that these arms are the bifurcated or forked end of the plate 21 zhrough which the bolts 20 pass, and by 4which the plate and its arms are rigidly hiredl to the angle iron. From this construction it will' be obvious that the carrier 7 of the conveyer, ywhich has its rods 7 supported in the rollers 11, may beXmoved longitudinally a distance inproportion to the travel of the trunnion 18 in the groove 17` in the arms 16, 4and when so moved, the rollers will'revolve on their trunnions which44 travel from end to end of the roove.

ln the plan views ofthe rawings it is clear that the rods 7 y ranged alternately across the oven, butthe rods 8 do not move lon itudinally thereof. rlihe rods'8 in'steadjofeing supported in rollers are supported in a series of rock arms 22 and pivoted to the extreme right, Fig. 4, each of which, excepting the arm to the ylght, is bifurcated or forked at its end 23 and rounded to neatly lit under the rod.. these rock arms are rigidly attached by a plate 24 and bolts 25 to an angle iron rock bar 26, the end of the rock arms being fori/ned to straddle over the angleiron as tlf-arl shown in Figs. 5 and 8. The rock itam L6 are arranged, one adjacent each of the angle iron bars 12, to extend across the gt/en, and each rock bar is supported at its ends' upon a fulcrum lug 27 that rises from the end of the base plate 14 that supports the stationary cross bars 12. rlhese pairs of lugs are triangular in cross section and their apices form knife edge supports for the rock `22 and elevate all of the rods 8.

rest.- The link 28 is now pulled to the from th and rods 8 are tirl nimeer The rock bars are actuated from outside the oven by means of a link 28 to which the levers 29 are pivoted and these levers are fixed, one to each of the rock bars, so that when the link /is pulled to the right in Fig. 5, this movement will raise each rock arm If desired small metallic clips 30, Figs. 6 and 7, may be employed to prevent lateral movement of the cross angle irons. rlhese cleats may be adjusted on the angle irons by means of the bolt 8l and the slots 32 in the cleats, as will lbe readily apparent;

The modus operandi of the device is as follows: A plate of glass is placed upon the left end of the carrier 7 while the carrier is at its extreme left position. The carrier is then pulled to the right, the rods 7 passing overl the rollers 11 and the trunnions of the rollers traveling over the grooved arms as described. When the carrier reaches its eX- treme right position its movement is stopped and the carrier with the plateon it is at right and this action causes the rock bar to rock and swlng the rock arms of the elevator supports upwardly carrying with them the rods 8 of the elevator 8. The elevator is lifted above the carrier and it lifts the glass plate e carrier as it passes the latter. N ow Whilethe elevator is raised the carrier is returned to the left free of the glass plate, leaving the plate at rest upon the raised levator. The elevator is as its rods 8 pass the rods 7 the glass plate is again deposited on the carrier, but at a position to the right of the original position occupied 'by the plate when it was first placed upon the carrier. Additional plates of glass are successively placed upon the left end of the carrier, and with each additional plate the above described operation is undergone so thatthe first moved step by step with the other plates following, until-it has slowly traversed the length of the annealing oven and may be taken from the carrier at Athe. right end of the oven. After the conveyer has become filled with glass plates it will be seen that the plates are fed to the conveyer at the left end and delivered at the right end of the conveyer in continuous order. During the passage of the glass plates from the heated left end to they comparatively cooler right end of the oven, the glass is annealed, and the annealing may be governed by the length of the oven, or the speed of the moving parts of the conveyer, and further the movement of the carrier will of course be regulated by the size of the plate that is to then depressed and i Aplate for instance, is

aaneen s m be annealed, a `large plate requirin more thereon, transversely extending angle iron extended movement than Va smaller p ate as bars fulcrumed on said lugs and formed 1s obvlous. with arms for supporting said elevator rods, What I claim is and means for rocking said bars. 15

5 The combination in a conveyer with a In testimony whereof I ailx my signature longitudlnally reciprocable carrier composed in presence of two witnesses,

, of spaced parallel rods and supporting rollers and suitable supports for the rollers, GEORGE A SHIELDS of an elevator comprising a set of a1ternat- Witnesses: 10 ing rods adapted to co-act with the carrier l C..F. LUcxHAn'r,

rods, spaced plates with knife edge lugs F. M. GL'ICK. 

